Saturday, June 13, 2009

For the sake of the planet, we are building up the people’s green power from the grassroots;Let not narrow vested interests get away with foul play that would jeopardize our move for the Earth and our life as a nation!

THE PHILIPPINE ENVIRONMENT MOVEMENT, playing an active part in the worldwide efforts to stop Climate Change and all other environmental ills and hazards now being faced by our common planetary home has had the duty to strengthen itself mainly by strengthening and synergizing the local environmental movements, and building up their assertion of green power to effectively promote and ensure environmental conservation where such is still possible and undertake rehabilitation and restoration where attempts at conservation have already become too late. The people can only rely on their own active efforts on this matter, to compel the persons they elect and keep in office to unmistakably join them in earnest environmentalism, beyond tokenism and beyond flimsy excuses.

The strengthening of local communities and of the local government units that are duty-bound to serve them, needs to keep whatever momentum has already been gained by the localization, government decentralization and people’s self-empowerment processes. For the sake of the build up of green power from the grassroots, these processes should not be disrupted now or in the near future. Much less, allow this not to be disrupted for the selfish interests and myopia of narrow political interests of the ruling faction of the elite, whose eight-year administration has chalked up an unmistakable record of causing and abetting environmental destruction.The people should be allowed to replace the elective officials who have been behind horrendously anti-environmental policies and proposed policies, such as the Senate’s treasonous and suicidal ratification of the treaty with Japan that has declared the entire country as “open city” to full-scale Japanese reoccupation of our country, albeit without having to use warplanes and bombs. The district constituencies have to be afforded to opportunity to pass judgment on House members who had decided “without much study” to put their signatures behind the current proposal to rehabilitate and operate the super-expensive and super-hazardous Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

Tampering with the Constitution now, for the convenience and longevity in power of one anti-environment chief executive widely known for unmoderated greed, and doing so through such a naked distortion of due process, would not only be suicidal stupidity for us to allow, it would indeed be patently illegal and illegitimate, as illegitimate as having a vice president sworn-in as president when there was no vacancy in the Presidency.

As conscious stakeholders in our lives and the lives of our children and children’s children, let us all be active stakeholders, and build grassroots-based synergies to save the livable state of our only planetary home.

(Note: As mandated by a specific resolution of the 7th Annual Assembly of the World Environment Day-Philippines (WED-Phils.) Network, held in Batangas City a few days before, I issued this statement amd even had copies made for distribution during the massive rally in Makati last Wednesday. On the basis of another resolution in the same Assembly, the name of the organization signed for it was GFCN. Greens oppose the Con-Ass not just because GMA is GMA and trapos are trapos. We oppose tje Con-Ass because we have serious work to do throughout the country for active stakeholdership at the grassroots for effective environmentalism, and the Con-Ass represents a disruption for the work we have to do for our environment and that of thewhole planet.)